


In Which Instincts Kick In, Part 1

by OlwenDylluan



Series: It Cannot Be Taken From You [14]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Gen, Growing Up is Hard, Kedreeva's Wiggleverse, Kid Fic, Snakes, does it count as kid fic if the kids are snakes but so is one of the parents, parenting, snabies!omens, snek!babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:47:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25151866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlwenDylluan/pseuds/OlwenDylluan
Summary: Moving to the countryside after being in London sets up an infinite number of new experiences for the snabies. Some are a bit less comfortable than others...Starring Angelica!Part 2 will happen sooner than Junior's solo snek!fic did, I promise. XD
Relationships: Crowley (Good Omens) & Original Female Character(s)
Series: It Cannot Be Taken From You [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602421
Comments: 15
Kudos: 97
Collections: Wiggleverse





	In Which Instincts Kick In, Part 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Snake Cottage, or Snottage,](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21420358) by [Quilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quilly/pseuds/Quilly). 
  * Inspired by [Snake Room, or Snoom](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24121681) by [Jeslieness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeslieness/pseuds/Jeslieness). 



> CW: Govern your reading experience accordingly; a small, defenceless, furry thing gets eaten. In related warnings, snek being snek. (But if you’re in the Wiggleverse, that should be a given possibility at any time.)
> 
> Shoutout to Quilly and Jeslieness for setting this one up in my brain. I love how we riff off one another's work in the Wiggleverse.

> “Azirafather and I’ll carry you around, show you the whole place, and once you’ve seen it all, you can pick out your rooms and run wild like little hooligans. Alright?”
> 
> There was a chorus of assent, and Aziraphale stooped to let Rosa, Angelica, and Clem wind up his arms and settle—Rosa around his neck, Angelica hanging out of his breast pocket, and Clem held in his arms. 

> _Snake Cottage, or Snottage, Chapter 1: Welcome Home_ by Quilly

> “You'll like this window. You can watch the squirrels, dear.”
> 
> “Don't get any ideas about them. You'll have bits of tail stuck in your fangs for days.” Father shook his head, grimacing. “More trouble than they're worth.” He directed a significant look at Angelica as he said it—Angelica, who had always been the best hunter—and she answered with a lazy flick of her tongue as she wandered back out of the room.

> _Snake Room, or Snoom_ by Jeslieness

Father and Azirafather had carried them all around the new house and the garden, they’d chosen rooms, and then they’d changed to people shapes and tested out how fast they could run in the grass. For the first couple of weeks, Father or Azirafather was always with them, but their hawkish behaviour gradually relaxed to a point where they weren’t hovering over the snakelets if they were outdoors. Instead, Azirafather would read under a tree, reminding them to stay within eyesight, or Father would garden, keeping an ear out.

There was so much to see and so much to experience, and it was rather overwhelming at times. There was plenty of investigating in both snake and people forms, and Datura started organizing their approach to it all scientifically, dividing the yard up and going over each section one day as a snake, the next as a people, then comparing the observations. They each discovered they preferred different areas for different reasons; for example, Junior liked slithering through the garden beds, the dark soil alternately warm and cool against his scales, depending on where he was. Clem liked the top of the stone walls. Rosa liked to coil herself under a stone bench by the roses, and to sit on it if she went people-shaped.

Angelica liked being under the rose bushes themselves. She liked the challenge of moving around the branches without catching her scales on the thorns. It wasn’t easy, and it took practice, but she was determined to get better at it, so she did it over and over, every day.

One day, when everyone else was either in their preferred dozing spot or lying next to Azirafather under the tree, Angelica was practicing winding around a branch of the rosebush. She had almost completed a full coil up the branch to the fourth set of leaves and back down again (with only one brush against a thorn that was certainly not as small as it had been yesterday) when movement caught her attention out of the corner of her vision. She paused and tried to focus on it.

She’d discovered that outdoors was lovely for basking, but not so great for her serpent eyes. It was easier in the early morning and after dinner; any other time, if she wanted to see something clearly or in detail, she’d have to use people eyes.

What her people shape didn’t have, however, was the awesome ability to taste the air and sort through the flavours the great outdoors offered. And on top of that, being able to pick up the vibrations of things moving around was pretty cool, too. So Angelica slipped silently off the rose branch, lowering her upper body to the ground, her body and tail following, unwinding from the branch efficiently (and without tagging any thorns, too, the back of her mind noted with satisfaction). 

On the ground, her ventral muscles could feel the patter-hop of something light and quick nearby. She flickered her tongue in the general direction the pattering and the movement had come from and sorted through the tastes she knew--grass, roses, the cool flavour of the damp stone wall with the moss in the cracks, the earthy flavour of the soil, the lighter and brighter flavour of the dry earth along the path, the papery-crisp smell of shards of dry leaves caught along the base of the wall, the conifers nearby, the apple trees--there.

Something that had a tiny heart beating faster than she could count. Something… mousy, but not.

Without making a conscious decision, Angelica gilded toward the not-mouse, moving her head from side to side and repeatedly tasting with her tongue to fix the precise location of whatever it was. It was doing something in the dirt, scrabbling around, and honestly, if it didn’t want to be found, why was it making so much _noise?_

It moved again, darting a bit further along the wall. Angelica followed it, changing her angle and gliding through the grass toward it. The air tasted... _delicious._

Suddenly, Angelica was very, very invested in the not-mouse. She knew exactly where it was, how quickly its heart was beating, and how fast it--

Angelica didn’t remember deciding to strike, but she suddenly had a mouthful of something tiny and so _warm._ Its tail was definitely not as long as a mouse’s, and the ears were the wrong shape, and the taste in her mouth and the air around her was dusty and rich and wild and--

The not-mouse stopped struggling and Angelica maneuvered it so that she could pull it headfirst into her mouth. It was remarkably satisfying to move her upper jaw and then her lower, pulling herself forward over it so that it vanished bit by bit inside her, all the while enjoying the dizzying taste in the air all around her.

Then it was safely inside, and she had a moment to gleefully congratulate herself on… whatever it had been.

And to realize that she had _no idea_ what she had eaten.

 _Father!_ she called, beginning to worry. 

“What’s up, spawn?”

_I… ate a thing._

Crowley came over, brushing dirt off his hands. He crouched down next to her in the shade cast by the wall. Angelica looked up at him anxiously.

“Right. What did it smell like?”

 _… very delicious,_ she said apologetically. He laughed.

“Well, that’s good. Eating not-delicious things is generally ill advised.” He brought a hand down and touched her back gently, brushing his fingers over the lump. “Did it smell familiar?”

_Like a mouse, only not. It was different. Furry, shorter tail, round ears. Rounder everything, really._

He put his own tongue out, tasting the air thoughtfully.

“A vole, most likely. Not a very old one, judging by your bump. Adolescent, or new adult.”

_Did I do a bad thing?_

He hummed. 

“Did it feel bad?”

 _No,_ she said slowly, considering his question. _It felt… it felt good. But..._

“What made you decide to eat it?” he said, putting his hand flat on the ground. Angelica moved onto it, already feeling the slowness a meal brought, and wrapped herself up his forearm.

_I didn’t really decide. I saw something move and smelled it, and I wanted to find it to see what it was because I’d never smelled it before. But when I found it, I just… sort of…_

“Was suddenly on top of it.” Father nodded and lifted her up to kiss the top of her head. “It happens, spitfire. You’re in the great outdoors now, surrounded by bugs and wee mammals and tiny birds. Only natural you’re going to start properly exercising your hunting instinct.”

 _Oh._ Drowsy and relieved, Angelica rested her head on Crowley’s arm as he straightened and started for the house. 

“What we need to work on,” he said, opening the garden door and moving into the kitchen, “is being able to resist it. There is a time and place for hunting, and you don’t want to be at the mercy of your instincts. You need to stay in control.”

 _Uh-huh,_ she said sleepily. She felt him go up the stairs and into her sunny room. He stroked her head and lowered his arm into her terrarium. She slowly wound herself off his arm and made her way into the little cave of leaves she’d nudged into place in the corner.

“Love you, spitfire,” he said as he withdrew. Angelica barely heard him, almost all the way asleep. “See you in a couple of days once you’ve slept this one off.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I am adopting a snek in a week or two, so I have been researching (because I am me and never go into anything without researching it to death)! I have learned more than I ever thought I'd know about how snakes eat, which in turn led me to this.


End file.
